Enter The Magician’s Room, and you’ll encounter a brawny horse with a serpent coiled on its back, a flock of headless birds diving into a central star, and a fluffy white rabbit framed by an unblinking circle of eyes. This surreal, liminal space is the setting for a new body of work by Paris-based Lou Benesch.
On view through August 22 at Hashimoto Contemporary, the solo exhibition takes the tarot’s Magician card as a starting point. Known as a trickster-wizard who connects the heavens and earth, the mysterious figure is primed for movement and change. Benesch translates the Magician’s inclination for action and mysticism into a collection of dreamy works on found and antique materials.
Vintage board games and chalkboards become the aged frames for the artist’s energetic mixed-media compositions, while antique paper holds bold two-dimensional depictions of hybrid creatures and otherworldly happenings. The Magician’s Room melds past and present and spiritual and physical into a fantastic alternate word where dreams and manifestation rule.
If you’re in San Francisco, stop by Hashimoto Contemporary to see the exhibition before it closes on August 22. Otherwise, keep up with Benesch on Instagram.
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